Mu-Jeong Kho as an Economist: The Ethic of Work
By Mu-Jeong Kho
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4545-8731
Email: khomujeong@yahoo.co.uk
Among the many passages of Mencius that I hold dear, one in particular often comes to mind. Mencius invites us to imagine two craftsmen: one makes armour, the other makes arrows. The question he poses is simple yet profound: Is the arrow-maker, by nature, any less virtuous than the armour-maker? The answer, of course, is no. And yet, each harbours a different concern - the arrow-maker worries that his arrows may fail to strike, while the armour-maker worries that his armour may fail to protect.
This image keeps returning to me throughout my professional life. Within the same vocation, there are moments when my work resembles the making of armour, and others when it resembles the making of arrows. (Naturally, some professions are by their nature harmful - criminal enterprises, for example - but these lie outside the scope of my reflection here.) The ethical quality of any task is not fixed by the title of the profession; it is shaped by the specific role one occupies, the institutional and historical context in which one operates, and the ultimate purpose that frames the work. In my own field, this means recognising whether a given intervention reinforces protective social capacities or sharpens critical challenges to harmful structures.
In economic analysis and evaluation, to speak critically is not, in itself, to “make arrows.” The duty of an economist certainly includes criticising where criticism is due. Indeed, such criticism can constitute armour-making when it safeguards societal well-being, strengthens institutional resilience, or prevents systemic harm. My concern here is not with the legitimacy of critique, but with the principles of work and the situational context in which that work is embedded - its place, its orientation, and its moral stance.
From this standpoint, the question “Am I now making armour or making arrows?” is inseparable from professional ethics. In my own practice, I am consistently drawn toward the ethic of making armour - producing scholarship and policy analysis that, at its core, seeks to safeguard rather than to harm - thereby aligning methodological rigour and theoretical innovation with a protective and constructive social purpose. For me, as an economist, there is no higher calling than to ensure that the tools I forge serve the common good.
End.
One should observe the conventions of academic citation in a version of the following form:
Kho, Mu-Jeong. (2025, August 13). Mu-Jeong Kho as an economist: The ethic of work [Blog article]. IPEAD Insights: Letters on Economics, Politics, and Philosophy [online]. Series 2025-01. Retrieved from https://mujeongkho.blogspot.com/2025/08/blog-post.html [pdf download]
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